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"I'll be sitting in the same office by 2027," Sir Keir Starmer declared, joking that if the conversation was successful, he might welcome us into Downing Street for another talk next year.

For a PM, there's never truly time off for leaders. Just an hour before the interview began, the PM had been speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and working to understand what on earth had occurred in Venezuela, where his close ally, US President Donald Trump, had just launched a strike against and detained its leader, Nicolás Maduro.

Once the discussion, which was much longer than usual, had finished, Maduro had been formally accused in New York.

A Reboot for the New Year

As the year commences, the Prime Minister seems to have had something of a revitalisation. Perhaps even just some relaxation with loved ones at Chequers, the prime minister's rural getaway.

That certainly seemed to have left him in improved morale than at the sluggish end of 2025, a awful political year for him.

Yet, are he and his allies kidding themselves if they think his fortunes are poised to improve?

Internal Doubts

The harsh reality for the prime minister is that many of his colleagues think he's underperforming at his job. Several of them would sooner take a risk and get him out in 2026.

However Starmer was rejecting the idea in the interview on Saturday morning.

On several occasions he stated he'd be "judged at the general election", insisting nobody would take his electoral mandate from him – despite the fact that the best chance of stopping Nigel Farage and Reform UK getting to No 10 could be for Labour to replace leader.

"We are in the battle of our generation and I aim to lead us," he said.

The May Elections

The challenge for the prime minister is that he will be scrutinised well ahead of then – in a mega set of elections in May across the UK. He attempted to contend, perhaps too much, that they are concerning who runs local authorities, and who runs the governments in Holyrood or Cardiff – and not about Westminster.

True – in part. But even though he may not want to acknowledge it, No 10 will be held accountable by those elections too.

Despite this, Sir Keir implying that there were no scenario under which he would walk away, should one of his MPs contested his leadership for the job, if those elections prove very poor for Labour.

Promises of Improvement

He sought to explain his unpopularity by saying the voters was reasonably eager for things to get better. He tried to persuade me, and the nation, that the coming months would be distinct.

The economy would strengthen notwithstanding rising unemployment, he argued, when strategies the administration enacted during their initial rocky year began to bear fruit.

• He pledged to close asylum hotels before the current target date of 2029, although he wouldn't set a firm date on that.
• He added too, with the caveat that it was not a certainty, that a settlement in Ukraine felt more likely now than at any point since Russia's full-scale invasion.
• He disclosed for the first occasion that Western partners were now talking about how to combine US and European forces to provide security for Ukraine – to guard a possible peace.

His core point is that this year the country will "see an improvement".

Political Challenges

The prime minister may have spoken with more energy than observed from him for a while – less tense, maybe, with more time to talk.

But despite encountering pressure from within his own party for a more decisive strategy, with greater political clarity, more dynamism, more pace and more immediacy, his explanations were well-known ones.

When he finds himself in this much political trouble, should he consider a new narrative?

No administration, and certainly not one that has been struggling in the polls for an extended period, gets everything its as planned.

Sir Keir's challenges are not only because governing is challenging, but because he and his colleagues have made mistakes, even in the last few weeks.

Controversies and Dangers

The PM told me that he regretted saying he was "happy" to see the return of the Egyptian-British activist Alaa Abd El Fattah to the UK following an outcry when past remarks he'd made in the past – including calls for Zionists and police to be killed – resurfaced.

Sir Keir attributed it to "the system" for failing to identify what the activist had said before – a fancier way of saying not my fault.

And he is facing evident political perils as the year progresses. His alliance with the US president entails a new jeopardy after Trump's intervention on Venezuela.

Based on years of interviewing Sir Keir Starmer, a ex- human rights lawyer who was against the war in Iraq, over a long period, the thought he would be at ease with these events seems implausible.

Policy Stances and Pressures

He stated he was a "career-long advocate of international law" but the public "simply lack the complete details at the moment".

Opponents wanted him to denounce it before we spoke. And the government is likely to face more pressure to give an definitive view in Parliament in the coming days.

And there has consistently been growing tension in the Labour party to reverse or renegotiate some of the consequences of Brexit.

The PM disputes he's heading in that direction, but his new specific commitment to move closer with the single market – the vast economic European market – will probably trigger howls that he is reneging on his promise never to try to overturn the results that stemmed from Brexit.

A commitment to cosy up to more of the single market will delight a faction on his own side, but it is simple material for Reform and the Conservatives to